- TX: Chick-fil-A employee accused of stealing $80,000 with mac & cheese scheme
Source: New York Post
“That’s one way to cook the books. A former Chick-fil-A employee was arrested for stealing $80,000 with a mac & cheese scheme at a Texas restaurant, police say. Keyshun Jones was fired from the store in Grapevine, outside Dallas, last November, but authorities say he would repeatedly slip back in, enter food orders on the register, and refund them to his personal credit card, Fox 4 reported. Jones was taken into custody on April 17 after allegedly ringing up 800 orders of mac and cheese, according to the outlet. Investigators began investigating the fromage fraud after the restaurant reported hundreds of phony refunds. Security camera footage shows Jones behind the counter carrying out the bogus transactions, prosecutors say.” (04/29/26)
- WV: Prosecutor drops case against woman accused of threatening Trump on TikTok
Source: Fox News
“The case against a West Virginia library worker charged earlier this year after allegedly posting a threat on social media pertaining to President Donald Trump has reportedly been dismissed. The prosecuting attorney in Jackson County lodged a motion to dismiss without prejudice on April 16, WOWK reported, noting that the filing indicates that the individual, Morgan Morrow, had not been appropriately Mirandized during interrogation. ‘The case has been dismissed. We believe Miss Morrow never should have been charged at all, and we’re glad this is over,’ the woman’s defense attorney, Mark Atkinson, noted, according to the outlet.” (04/30/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/prosecutor-drops-case-woman-accused-threatening-trump-tiktok
- Elon Musk gets apology from California regulators as SpaceX lawsuit is settled
Source: SFGate
“California regulators apologized to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk this week as they settled a lawsuit that claimed a state agency showed political bias against the rocket company and its chief executive. As part of the settlement, the California Coastal Commission acknowledged its members made ‘improper’ statements about Musk’s political beliefs at a 2024 hearing on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch program. ‘The commission agrees that it may not consider irrelevant factors in performing its function and specifically agrees that it will not take into account the perceived political beliefs, political speech or labor practices of SpaceX or its officers in considering any regulatory action concerning SpaceX,’ the commission said in federal court documents filed Tuesday. SpaceX had sued the commission over its opposition to expanding the launch schedule for Falcon 9 rockets from the Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Southern California coast near Santa Barbara.” (04/29/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/elon-musk-gets-an-apology-from-california-22232290.php
- Rabbi found dismembered, stuffed in closet after being killed by Colombian gang
Source: New York Post
“A New York rabbi was found dismembered and stuffed inside a bloodstained wardrobe after he was attacked and murdered by Colombian gangbangers. Nachum Israel Eber’s mutilated remains were discovered inside the abandoned closet after it was dumped on a street in Bogota on Sunday — just days after his family reported him missing, local media reported. The 51-year-old father, who was a member of the Belz Hasidic community in Brooklyn’s Boro Park, had traveled to the South American country earlier this month to help advise a congregation of Catholics who had converted to Judaism. Authorities started searching for him after relatives in the Big Apple reported he had suddenly gone silent and stopped answering their calls. Surveillance video captured Eber leaving his Airbnb just after 9 p.m. April 21 before he vanished without a trace.” (04/30/26)
- ME: Mills suspends US Senate campaign
Source: The Hill
“Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced Thursday that she will suspend her Senate campaign over a lack of financial resources, clearing the way for primary rival Graham Platner. … Mills, who is term limited as governor, jumped into the race late last year to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R) as a top recruit from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) But Platner, a progressive political outsider, has been besting Mills in polling and fundraising five weeks out from the June 9 primary, despite various controversies around his campaign. An Emerson College Polling survey released last month showed Platner leading Mills by about 27 points in the Senate Democratic contest.” (04/30/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5856803-janet-mills-suspends-senate-bid-maine
- Hakeem Jeffries is a Racist: Or, SCOTUS Gets One Right
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution provides that ‘the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.’ The right to vote does not imply any guarantee of Pantone Matching System [TM] closeness in skin tone between the candidates elected and the voting majorities in districts. Nor should it. If you’re voting on the basis of skin color, You. Are. A. Racist.” (04/30/26)
- Whither Spirit
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“For years, the guardians of ‘consumer welfare’ in Washington postured as vigilant sentinels against consolidation in the airline industry, so that when JetBlue sought to acquire Spirit Airlines, the Department of Justice intervened immediately and with all earnest. The argument, we were told, was simple: Spirit, the plucky ultra-low-cost carrier, provided downward pressure on fares. To allow its absorption into a larger competitor would be to deprive consumers, especially cost-conscious ones, of a vital check on airline pricing power. … And so the merger was blocked. Fast forward but a few years, and the narrative collapses under its own weight. Spirit, long operating on razor-thin margins and a business model acutely vulnerable to cost shocks, finds itself in dire financial straits. Suddenly, the same political apparatus that insisted on preserving Spirit as an independent competitor now contemplates, or outright endorses, a $500 million taxpayer-funded rescue.” (04/30/26)
- Is China Using Iran as a Proxy Against the US?
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter“Leaders of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have cleverly exploited U.S. policy blunders throughout the international system for at least the past three decades to enhance Beijing’s influence and erode Washington’s. The Trump administration’s mishandling of relations with Iran affords China a new opportunity, and it may prove to be the most significant one yet. Indeed, the question arises whether Xi Jinping’s government is moving beyond passively taking advantage of chronic U.S. ineptitude in the Muslim world and is now actively using Iran and its Shia allies as proxies to create major strategic and economic headaches for the United States. There are indications that the answer is yes.” (04/30/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-china-using-iran-as-a-proxy-against-the-u-s/
- You (Probably) Won’t Get a Tariff Refund
Source: The Dispatch
by Scott Lincicome“[T]he law requires the government to return illegally exacted taxes; the Trump administration promised the courts that it would quickly refund any tariffs ultimately invalidated; and the ideal tariff refund system would be fast and automatic, with the government proactively returning collected duties to all importers that paid them. Sure, there would be some edge cases that required additional paperwork and bickering, but most refunds could be handled this way. In fact, CBP has issued big, automatic tariff refunds on multiple occasions and does smaller ones every day. CAPE is far from this ideal and will inevitably allow the government to keep billions in illegally collected tariffs.” (04/30/26)
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-markets/tariff-refunds-importers-consumers-taxpayers/
- The Marriage Gap Is America’s Most Overlooked Source of Inequality
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy“The most consequential inequality in America is not the wealth gap or the wage gap. It may not be the racial opportunity gap. The marriage gap is wreaking havoc. And unfortunately, it’s the gap that gets the least attention. I’m a libertarian. I don’t care whom, or if, you marry. Yet I’m reminded that there is a problem by a new report from the American Enterprise Institute.” (04/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/30/the-marriage-gap-is-americas-most-overlooked-source-of-inequality/
- Righting a free oil market
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“China tries to control exports of its rare earth minerals. The United States restricts certain exports of advanced computer chips. Even a few West African countries that dominate cocoa production often collude to control prices for the world’s chocolate-makers. Yet history teaches that a zero-sum mentality of resource manipulation or price-fixing among rivals often ends up pushing consumers to find creative ways to adjust. Cartels or monopolies then crack apart. The natural state of free competition in a market returns. And the notion that one can only get ahead if somebody else loses starts to recede. A good example of how mercantilism can melt away could be happening now. On Tuesday, one of the world’s top oil producers, the United Arab Emirates, announced it is quitting OPEC, along with the cartel’s stringent quota system among member states to rig global petroleum prices.” (04/29/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0429/Righting-a-free-oil-market
- Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Beryl Lipton, Aaron Mackey, & Adam Schwartz“Public records and public scrutiny of [automated license plate reader (ALPR)] programs have shown that people are harmed by these systems and that retained ALPR data violates people’s privacy. In this moment, lawmakers should not be completely cutting off access to public records that document the abuses perpetuated by ALPRs.” (04/30/26)
- The Logic of NACHO
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“On Wall Street, TACO — Trump Always Chickens Out — has abruptly been replaced as a favorite meme by NACHO — Not a Chance Hormuz Opens. As a result, oil futures have soared. I never bought into the TACO meme, which was initially about tariffs: Trump did not, in fact, reverse his destructive tariff policy, although he blinked in his confrontation with China. But NACHO looks right. Hormuz won’t open until the economic damage from its closure becomes much more severe.” (04/30/26)
- Die, DEI, Die!
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Banning DEI doesn’t necessarily end DEI. So-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies mandate guilt-inducing collectivist indoctrination about race and sex and/or impose race and sex quotas. The Texas legislature rightly concluded that DEI indoctrination is pernicious and required that it be removed from public universities in the state. Suspecting that the law would not be obeyed with perfect grace, the organization Accuracy in Media (AIM) has been doing undercover work to gather evidence on whether university staffers formerly determined to propagandize for DEI and impose DEI-based requirements are now backing off. Many are not.” (04/30/26)
- The Border Wall Thrives, The Borderlands Don’t
Source: TomDispatch
by William deBuys“A leading preoccupation of the first Trump administration has all but slipped from view. Except when ostensible conservatives speak out against it, the major media have scarcely breathed a word on the subject. But it’s still there, 30 feet tall, aspirationally 1,952 miles long, obliterating habitats, dividing families, and sucking down public funds faster than a carrier-based air squadron. The media’s lack of attention is understandable. All-too-real wars of choice and metaphorical wars against science, universities, and the environment have dominated our airtime and the headlines. The rise of a new medievalism in medicine and the abrogation of international trade and security agreements have also won attention. Add to all of that a federal paramilitary kidnapping people, even from what still passes for the halls of justice, while murdering the occasional protester, and one’s journalistic cup runneth over.” (04/30/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-never-ending-nightmare-of-the-border-wall/
- An oligarch’s dystopian scheme to discredit journalism with AI
Source: Popular Information
by Caleb Ecarma“A Peter Thiel-funded startup launched this month will use an ‘AI jury’ to ‘subject the media’s claims to systematic investigation and judgment.’ That same system of AI adjudication assigns a numerical value — the so-called ‘Honor Index’ score — grading the trustworthiness of individual reporters. And for a starting price of $2,000, anyone can pay for the company to review and adjudicate complaints they may have about a news outlet or reporter. Objection AI was founded by Aron D’Souza, a lawyer best known for leading the Thiel-funded lawsuit that bankrupted the digital news outlet Gawker in 2016. D’Souza has described Objection as a private arbitration court, which individuals can turn to when they feel they have been unfairly maligned by reporters or pundits.” (04/30/26)
- The Supreme Court Delivers Another Victory for the Jim Crow Southernization of America
Source: Liberal Currents
by Alan Elrod“We must not forget how poorly buried the racial tyranny of the South’s past is in America’s present.” (04/30/26)
- Will there be a boom after Gulf War Three?
Source: Cobden Centre
by Damien Phillips“With the Third Gulf War raging since late February, the prophecies of economic doom have been rolling in ever since. Iran’s economy is predicted to shrink by nearly 10% this year, while forecasts for growth in the Gulf nations are expected to fall from 4.4% in 2025 to 1.3% in 2026. It’s estimated that the Middle East’s tourism industry alone is losing $600 million a day through lost visitor spending. The global fallout has also seen projections of misery for all. … But there are an ever-growing number of thinkers and the historical evidence to back them up that point to major crises – wars, depressions, state collapses – often being followed by unusually strong growth.” (04/30/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/04/will-there-be-a-boom-after-gulf-war-three/
- Biden admin’s COVID vaccine cover-up and lies can no longer be denied
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine“As Dr. Anthony Fauci’s right-hand man, David Morens, was charged this week with conspiracy and destruction of federal records in the COVID-19 cover-up, another scandal over the vaccine was unfolding on Capitol Hill. According to a new Senate report and congressional testimony on Wednesday, Biden administration health officials deliberately ignored warning signs of possible serious reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, including heart attacks, strokes, Bell’s palsy and sudden cardiac death. … when the FDA’s senior medical officer, Dr. Ana Szarfman, whose job was to monitor the vaccine data for warning signs, repeatedly raised the alarm throughout 2021, she was ignored, and emails show her colleagues tried to stop her from using a newer, more accurate statistical methodology to investigate the data.” (04/29/26)
- Liberty in Hungary?
Source: Law & LIberty
by Miles Smith IV“There is something intrinsically foolish about Americans hyperbolically praising either Hungarian democrats or Russian autocrats.” (04/30/26)
- Americans aren’t buying Trump’s schtick anymore
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes“Trump will never face the voters again. But for him to be discredited so widely is to help ensure that the Trump line of would-be MAGA heirs ends with him.” (04/30/26)
- The Next Indictment Should Be Against Greg Folkers
Source: Brownstone Institute
by staff“The Department of Justice does not need to wait for Dr. David Morens to turn on his colleagues; the evidence to charge the next key advisor to Dr. Anthony Fauci is already in the public record. Greg Folkers was critical to the censorship operation at the heart of the Covid response. As Chief of Staff at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Folkers oversaw operations for the agency’s $6 billion budget and later sought to evade FOIA requests by conspiring with Dr. Morens and intentionally misspelling key phrases such as ‘g#in-of-function.'” (04/30/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-next-indictment-should-be-against-greg-folkers/
- Is DNC Keeping 2024 Autopsy Secret to Boost Kamala Harris?
Source: Common Dreams
by Norman Solomon“More than four months after Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin announced that he was breaking his promise to release its autopsy report on the 2024 election, the decision remains highly controversial. Arguments swirl around whether it’s wise to proceed without public scrutiny of what went wrong during the last presidential campaign. But scant attention has focused on how hiding the autopsy provides an assist to Kamala Harris, who currently leads in polling of Democrats for the party’s 2028 nomination. As Harris eyes another run, she has a major stake in the DNC continuing to keep the autopsy under wraps — and has a lot to lose if it reaches the light of day. She must feel gratified when Martin defends keeping the autopsy secret, saying that the party should not ‘relitigate’ the 2024 election and claiming that release of the 200-page document would result in ‘navel-gazing.'” (04/30/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/dnc-2024-autopsy-kamala-harris
- Investigating the investigators: Congressional oversight and state capacity
Source: Niskanen Center
by Justin Cohen“While none at the 1791 Battle of Wabash knew it, what was then ‘the most decisive defeat in the history of the American military’ would serve as the foundation of modern congressional oversight authority. The investigation, which focused on the conduct of American General Arthur St. Clair and the events that led to the deaths of 650 American soldiers, was unlike anything Congress had undertaken before, in part because it was not entirely clear that Congress could attempt it at all.” (04/30/26)
- The Oil Money Britain Wasted
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes“The United Kingdom has oil in the North Sea. But it chose not to think about this resource in the long term, treating it as a temporary source of revenue rather than an opportunity to build lasting wealth. Already in the 1970s, it was clear to some economists that North Sea oil represented such a unique opportunity.” (04/30/26)
- The SEC tried to silence activist investors. Now they’re fighting back.
Source: Grist
by Tik Root“Since President Donald Trump took office, the Securities and Exchange Commission has made it harder for small and activist investors to raise concerns through the government filing system known as EDGAR. Now they’re pushing back with their own alternative platform, which they call the Proxy Open Exchange — or POE. Literary puns aside, the initiative is aimed at bringing greater transparency to an increasingly restricted space. In January, the SEC said it would no longer allow investors with less than $5 million in shares to use EDGAR to send communiqués called exempt solicitations to fellow shareholders.” (04/30/26)
- The Price of Moral Superpower: Sweden, Israel, and the Assassination of Folke Bernadotte
Source: The Realist Review
by Pelle Taylor“Over the course of a single century, Sweden lost all four of its greatest international figures to assassination or state violence: Raoul Wallenberg, the diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest; Folke Bernadotte, the first United Nations Mediator in Palestine; Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General; and Olof Palme, Cold War prime minister and voice for global peace and nuclear disarmament. In each case the trail points toward a foreign state actor. In each case Sweden looked away. It seems strange when Sweden itself has been so peaceful. That none of the deaths was ever satisfactorily resolved says a great deal about how the Swedish state failed to follow through on the consequences of being a so-called moral superpower.” (04/30/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-price-of-moral-superpower-sweden
- The Dream of a Non-Partisan Senate
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman“We all have embarrassing fantasies, I imagine, and most of us keep them to themselves. I have a bad habit of sharing mine with other people. One of these, one I’ve shared before and will share again now, is of an American Senate that works more like the way it was intended to, which is to say: not as a partisan body. Could that fantasy actually become reality? To make it so, you would need a Senate that was closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, and for a small group of senators to refuse to caucus with either party. If they thereby deprived either party of a majority, they would have the leverage to shape the Senate’s rules and agenda, since essentially the only ways the body could get anything done would be either for Democrats and Republicans to work together against them, or for either or both parties to negotiate with them.” (04/30/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/the-dream-of-a-non-partisan-senate
- Licensed to speak? How NY’s AI bill gets it wrong.
Source: Expression
by John Coleman“A casual exchange with a chatbot can help someone understand a lease, think through a medical question, or navigate a personal issue. It can become specific and personal, even though people understand it isn’t a licensed professional. Yet even basic, exploratory conversations risk being labeled professional advice under a New York bill introduced this session. Senate Bill 7263 would prevent AI chatbots — defined broadly as any system that simulates ‘human-like conversation’ and provides information or services — from generating responses that would amount to the unlicensed practice of a profession like law, medicine, finance, or mental health, if that profession is normally provided by a human.” (04/30/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/licensed-to-speak-how-nys-ai-bill
- So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, 04/30/26
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“Minecraft, censorship, and threats to press freedom with Clayton Weimers.” (04/30/26)
- Cato Podcast, 04/30/26
Source: Cato Institute
“The Cure for the WHO.” (04/26/26)
- System Update, 04/30/26
Source: System Update
“Bari Weiss’[s] Latest CBS Moves Show the Ellisons’ Drive to Create Israeli State TV.” (04/30/26)
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/bari-weiss-latest-cbs-moves-show
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/30/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Betrayal! House Votes For MORE Warrantless Spying On Americans.” (04/30/26)
- The Briefing Podcast with Michael Waldman, 04/30/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“The Supreme Court Eviscerates the Voting Rights Act (with Wendy Weiser and Kareem Crayton).” (04/30/26)
- Rising, 04/30/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on DNC Chair Ken Martin facing heat from Dems over the committee’s refusal to release its autopsy on what went wrong in the 2024 election.” (04/30/26)
- The Permanent Problem, episode 16
Source: Niskanen Center
“Modern faith with Ryan Avent.” (04/30/26)
- Gaza, Cuba, Global Sumud Flotilla, And More
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Caitlin and Tim discuss the Israeli abduction of Global Sumud Flotilla activists hundreds of miles away from their territorial waters, US war plans for Cuba, Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza, the billionaire propagandist who owns Politico, motherhood, misogyny, and more.” (04/30/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/30/podcast-gaza-cuba-global-sumud-flotilla-and-more/
- The Daily, 04/30/26
Source: New York Times
“A Landmark Supreme Court Ruling on Voting Rights.” (04/30/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 04/30/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Gutting the Voting Rights Act | Interview: Judge Roy K. Altman.” (04/30/26)
- The Fifth Column, episode 555
Source: The Fifth Column
“David French on the Supreme Court, Race, and the Miracle That Confirmed His Faith.” (04/30/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/david-french-on-the-supreme-court